After many months of drought followed by Iowa’s wettest spring on record, the month of June wrapped up as one of the more “normal” months we’ve had in some time. State climatologist Harry Hillaker says the past month saw both temperatures and precipitation that were nearly dead on.
Rainfall averaged about 5 inches for the month and 5.02 inches is normal for June, while temperatures were only about a half-degree cooler than normal. While the precipitation may have balanced out statewide as being near-average, Hillaker says the amount of rainfall some areas of Iowa received during the month was anything but common.
Northeastern parts of Iowa saw a lot of rain and flooding while one community in Allamakee County had almost 14 inches of rain during June. That’s a far cry from many parts of southeast Iowa and far western Iowa, some areas of which only got 2 inches of rain during the month, less than half the norm.
Likewise, while temperatures averaged out to being essentially normal for June, the mercury was up and down all during the month. June started off very cool with the first 10 days of the month all below-normal while much of the rest of the month was abnormally warm.
Temperature extremes during the month ranged from 94-degrees in Sioux City on June 21st down to only 37-degrees on June 3rd in Elkader, one of the coldest June readings in Iowa in many years. As for the month ahead, Hillaker says Iowa could be in for near-normal temperatures and precipitation during July.
High temperatures this week will be in the 70s and 80s. Last year at this time, highs soared in the 90s across the state in what was the beginning of one of the hottest Julys in Iowa history.
By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City